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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
There is an absolutely devastating moment of pure drama in this eagerly-awaited
far-from-disappointing romance where Shahid Kapoor, playing one of the most
deliciously challenging roles of his career, espies from a train the lost love
of his life, Sonam Kapoor, standing forlorn in the snow with luggage, like Meryl
Streep in The French Lieutenant`s Woman or Manisha Koirala in Dil
Se, waiting for god knows what! The next train? Love? Death? Or the next
life?
It`s a moment that defines Mausam, a film that has some serious
flaws, but finally holds together as a work of renaissance art, more remarkable,
in parts outstanding, for what it attempts rather than what it finally achieves.
Pankaj Kapoor takes the Muslim-Hindu love story between a Kashmiri refugee girl
and a Punjabi boy through an arching sweep of history. Every historical trauma
that has defined and defiled India and Indians in the last 30 years props up as
a vital image to underline the love story.
And what Mausam finally says is, love becomes impossible in a
civilization that chooses to define itself by violence rather than peace.
Gandhi? He could be just a spectre that never existed in a world where two young
people cannot come together in a clasp of love for the fear of falling into a
terror trap.
We have award-worthy performances in Mausam by the hero who happens
to be the director`s son. But that is just a karmic coincidence, like much of
what transpires between the lovers in Mausam.
The film goes from one phase in the couple`s life to another, not quite smoothly
but not strenuously either. The transitions in their estrangement are mapped out
in some finely-written scenes where the couple`s smothered affections for one
another are manifested in moments of sublime beauty.
The ever-brilliant cinematographer Binod Pradhan captures the couple against
breathtaking backdrops in rural Punjab and Scotland.
Mausam is one of the best-looking films in recent times. The
transitions in time and topography are brought about with a fair degree of inner
conviction and outer resplendence.
The synthesis of the lovers` inner and outer world is not always stress-free.
The couple`s inability to come together through various tragic and traumatic
historical conflicts is depicted in scenes that range from the rivetting to the
mundane.
Visually the film is a feast.
The film`s strong sense of purpose and its love-defining affiliation to
socio-cultural incidents leave little space for the incidental characters (of
whom there are many) to grow in the plot. That, in a way, is the need of the
plot. But you do crave to see more of the lives around the couple and how these
lives and the relationships qualify the love story at the film`s centre. You
want to see the long-lasting friendship between Aayaat`s Muslim father (Kamalnain
Chopra) and the Kashmir Pundit (Anupam Kher).
And there is a plenty of quality of that sublime stillness in the storytelling -
the film`s extraneous correctness hides much of the film`s intrinsic
inconsistencies. Then there is Shahid, standing tall with a performance that
puts him right up there among the finest contemporary actors.
Shahid takes us through the film`s and his character`s romantic odyssey,
inconsistencies and all. Forget Tom Cruise. In the Airforce uniform he reminds
us of Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana. And that`s the highest compliment
any contemporary star can be paid.
The director tries hard to merge Sonam in the resplendent ambience. Her
performance has enchanting echoes of Kareena Kapoor in Refugee. The
camera gives her no room to complain. But in the intensely romantic moments, she
looks lost rather than lovelorn.
It`s the other girl, the spirited Punjabi kudi Rajjo, in Shahid`s life played by
Aditi Sharma, who fills up the small space provided to her character.
Mausam is about the thwarted love between Harry and Aayaat. When
they finally meet during the Gujarat riots, they seem to discover not love but
its aftermath, which is a far greater thing than love.
Where the film seems to lag behind is in creating emotional pockets for the
couple`s mutual feelings to develop. Shahid playing Harry the Punjabi wastrel
turned air-force officer and Sonam playing Aayaat the refugee from Kashmir, have
several shared tender moments . The stand-out ones all come towards the
second-half when loves grows impossible between the couple.
The climactic reconciliation during the Gujarat riots, enacted with supreme
passion by Shahid, stands out for its stark dialogues that intercut between the
couple`s long pent-up feeling of separation and the socio-political forces that
have kept them from each other.
The climax on a ferri`s wheel appears a trifle manufactured.
Editor Sreekar Prasad`s smooth flow in the narration is suddenly stymied in the
search for a jolting finale.
But you have to hand it to Pankaj Kapoor. In his directorial debut, he tells an
old-fashioned story of love, separation and reunion with flourishes and flashes
of great cinema igniting what would in lesser hands, appear to be a trite tale
of love gone frightfully cliched.
And yes, Pritam`s music is apt. But the best tunes Abhi na jao chod kar
and Ajeeb dastaan hain yeh, are not his.
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Four seasons.Four colours.Four Phases of their lives.Four true historical evets.
Mausam (Seasons of Love) is a story of timeless love in the face of political hostilities and religious conflict, between a proud Punjabi Air Force Officer, Harry (Shahid Kapur) and an innocent Kashmiri refugee Aayat, (Sonam Kapoor) Set against a landscape that transcends a decade and spans continents, Mausam is a classic journey that transports one into a world of indestructible bonds of love enveloped by the roulette of destiny.
In its First Season, the film begins with mere adolescent attraction between Harry and Aayat, in a small village of Punjab. In Season Two iit develops into young love; Their love realizes its own depth in the hours of separation through Season Three. In the Fourth and Final Season their love culminates into togetherness, but not before sacrificing a lot personally and learning the truth behind universal love. It is a passionate love story, with various shades of life as its background, questioning us and yet not becoming indulgent